Become the Reference Point in Your Industry

We all have reference points. When someone asks you, “What’s the best steak you’ve ever had?” you have an answer. In fact, not only do you have an answer, but every steak you eat after that will be compared to it – whether consciously or subconsciously.

When enough people develop the same opinion, that steak restaurant becomes their reference point for anything concerning steak. And, because of that, they spread word about their satisfaction to others, which, in turn, may make that steak restaurant another person’s reference point. In the end, if the restaurant becomes the reference point for enough people, it transforms into what any retailer works to become – a household name.

A interesting article on CustomerThink shared tidbits about the rewards from having a great customer service culture, along with how to become a reference point and a household name.

Following are a few tips the article shared that may be helpful in your dealership:

Improve employee training – If your employees don’t know how to do their jobs, can’t do them effectively, or are unable to handle the customer when things go wrong (which they will), customers will get irritated and your dealership could lose that customer, along with future customers due to negative word-of-mouth.

Improve staff retention – Do I even need to explain why any business – much less car dealerships – wouldn’t want to improve their staff retention?

Improve customer loyalty – Of course any business wants loyal customers. But creating and keeping them requires consistently great service. This is a much harder challenge as loyal customers won’t stick around long if they have too many bad experiences — and the definition of “too many” varies from customer to customer. Often, one could be enough. However, most loyal customers will give you more than one chance. The problem is that you don’t know which will, and which won’t. So, ensure that your customers receive a consistent experience, regardless of which employee services them.

Get more referrals – Everyone wants referrals, especially car dealerships. Customers who are referred by a friend of associate tend to come in with less anxiety, are less combative, more willing to take advice and more trusting in the dealership and salesperson.

Improve profits – This, of course, comes from all of the above. You’ll spend less keeping a customer, less training new employees, less acquiring new customers and maintain higher profits — in both sales and service.

Author: Michael Gorun

Michael Gorun is founder of Performance Loyalty Group, a technology-based owner retention and loyalty company. He has more than 25 years in operational service management positions for Ford, Nissan and General Motors. He can be reached at: mgorun@performanceloyalty.com.